Polyphenol Content: Not All Teas are Created Equal | Tea Guardian (2024)

Polyphenol Content: Not All Teas are Created Equal | Tea Guardian (1)

Comparison of the Catechins Composition of Fresh Tea Leaves by Their Plucking Positions in mg/gram of tea solution made by 1g of dried fresh leaves to 50 g of water (i.e. 2 g to 100 ml, as in the ISO Infusion Standard) Data obtained and simplified from Capillary Electrophoretic Determination of Theanine, Caffeine, and Catechins in Fresh Tea Leaves and Oolong Tea and Their Effects on Rat Neurosphere Adhesion and Migration, by C.N. Chen et al

Which products offer the most flavonoids?

Not all teas are created equal. Between a mass market product and a traditional whole leaf tea, there is a great discrepancy in flavonoid content, not to mention other things. According to the “USDA Database for the Flavonoid Content of Selected Foods” (5), for example, a bottled green tea contains a mean of 13 mg/100ml while a regular cup of freshly brewed tea can deliver over 133 mg/100ml. However, this “regular” cup of tea reflects only mean figures base on a huge range of products including those major brands of mass produced products (6) that are the fannings (i.e. tea dust) (7) in teabags. Catechins are unstable materials which composition can easily be altered through exposure to the environmental elements. The minute the leaf is broken to expose its content, they begin to change. Good packaging practice slows this down, but the more broken the leaves are the quicker they are to change.

Fresh green leaves: 2150 mg/100ml

And there is the quality of the leaves. In finer tea production, one shoot and the two immediate young leaves (8) form a pluck. This contrasts sharply with machine harvesting, where the hedge of tea bushes is uniformly cut down 2 inches. Leaves, together with twigs, fruits and flowers are shredded into the collection bags. In a study done in Taiwan (9) where the catechins contents of the various leaves by their twig tip position are evaluated, each of the youngest 3 leaves holds between 38 to 43 mg/g of flavonoids per gram of tea liquid (10), i.e. 1900~2150 mg per 100 ml. There will be some loss when the fresh leaves go through production, but between 18~90% of tea catechins can be dissoluble in normal tea-making (11), this is still a few hundred times that of the bottled tea, and a lot more than your 250 mg “green tea catechins” capsule!

Here is an insight: As listed in the USDA report, while some selections of loose leaf tea can be offering over 200 mg of EGCGalone in each 100 ml of tea liquor (made with 1 g of leaves to 100 ml of water), some other only 2.3 mg. Some instant tea mixes 0 mg and the same amount in over half of all the other flavonoids. They are the junk of beverages.

Fine teas: Much better value

If you need the health benefits of catechins, whole leaves, fresh green tea made from the youngest 3 leaves are what you should look for. Even if you are on a budget, there are a few grades, a large number of varieties from various origins with different pricing. Well, they maybe a little more than your generic “green tea” teabag, but let’s be objective, a cup of tea made from 2~3 gram of whole leaf green tea of reasonably fine quality costs no more than your discounted can of pop!

footnotes
5. Data available from USDA Database for the Flavonoid Content of Selected Foods, Release 2.1 (2007) at the USDA official link.
6. Typically whole-leaf tea varieties are minorities in the market in the West, and inferior quality predominates the products available by major brands in the supermarkets. This distorts the true health potential of tea on average and especially in a census. It is part of the mission of this site to let the consumers understand what is better value for their daily drink.
7. Fannings is a grade of tea that represents the small broken particles leftover from processing leaf teas. This is most popularly used in teabags.
8. Except for certain oolong productions, where the shoot is left untouched, and in some top quality green and white tea production, where only the shoot, or with one immediate young leaf is plucked.
9. It is logical for an institution in Taiwan to study the salutary contents of the leaf by its growth position, because tea production in Taiwan has become almost entirely hand-plucked and top quality only. C.N. Chen et al, Capillary Electrophoretic Determination of Theanine, Caffeine, and Catechins in Fresh Tea Leaves and Oolong Tea and Their Effects on Rat Neurosphere Adhesion and Migration, Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 2003, 51, 7495−7503
10. The plucked leaves in this experiment were heat dried as in some baked green tea production. They were than infused basing on 1 g/50 ml water infusion standard and the solution analyzed for the related contents. Our figures here is adjusted to be comparable with the USDA report, where they used 1 g/100 ml water.
11. C. Cabrera et al, Beneficial Effects of Green Tea—A Review, Journal of the American College of Nutrition, Vol. 25, No. 2, 79–99 (2006)
Polyphenol Content: Not All Teas are Created Equal | Tea Guardian (2024)
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